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' necessary for those who fupport the motion, to prove, ⚫ not only that the treaty of Vinena was never made, • but that the falfhood of the report either was or ' might have been known by our minifters, otherwise those who are inclined to retain a favourable opinion ' of their integrity and abilities, may conclude, that they were either not mistaken, or were led into error ⚫ by fuch delufions as would no less eafily have impof⚫ed on their accufers, and that by exalting their ene' mies to their stations they shall not much confult the advantage of their country.

This motion therefore, my lords, founded upon ⚫ no acknowledged, no indifputable facts, nor supported by legal evidence, this motion, which by appealing to common fame as the ultimate judge of every 'man's actions, may bring every man's life or fortune • into danger, this motion, which condemns without

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hearing and decides without examining, I cannot • but reject, and hope your lordships will concur ' with me *.

This nervous speech was occafioned by one of the earl of Abingdon in support of the motion, which he grounded on the evidence of common fame. The drift of lord Hardwicke's speech is to invalidate that kind of teftimony, and in this he displays the talents of a found lawyer and an eloquent orator; but the private virtues of Sir Robert Walpole were fuch, that few of his enemies wished for a greater punishment on him than the divesting him of power, and accordingly the motion contained no specific charge of crimes that called for public justice: it tended to shew that the minister had been inattentive to the complaints of the

* Gent. Mag. 1741, page 402.

merchants, merchants, averse to the profecution of the war, and unskilful in the conduct of it, and that the councils of the nation had not profpered under his influence, and that these facts were notorious: these were furely reasons for his removal, and superseded the necessity of legal forms, and that kind of evidence which is required to support a bill of attainder or an impeachment. Lord Hardwicke's argument may therefore feem fallacious, but it was admirably calculated to elude the charge; he wilfully mistook the design of the motion, and set himself to invalidate the kind of evidence on which it was grounded, and to shew its infufficiency to support a legal profecution, and fucceeding therein, his opponents thought their arguments refuted when in truth they were not.

The speech of Lord Chesterfield on a different fubject, and against a measure of a succeeding, and, as it was pretended, a purer administration, is as follows.

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'The bill now under our consideration appears to

me to deserve a much closer regard than seems to ' have been paid to it in the other house, through ' which it was hurried with the utmost precipitation, ' and where it passed almost without the formality of

a debate; nor can I think that earnestness with which ' some lords seem inclined to press it forward here, consistent with the importance of the consequences 'which may be, with great reason, expected from it. 'It has been urged that where so great a number < have formed expectations of a national benefit from any bill, so much deference at least is due to their 'judgment, as that the bill should be confidered in a committee. This, my lords, I admit to be, in other * cafes, a just and reasonable demand, and will readily allow

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'allow that the proposal, not only of a confiderable number, but even of any single lord, ought to be fully ' examined and regularly debated, according to the ' usual forms of this assembly. But in the present cafe,

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my lords, and in all cafes like the present, the de'mand is improper because it is useless, and it is ' useless because we can do now all that we can do hereafter in a committee. For the bill before us is

a money-bill, which, according to the present opinion • of the clinabs*, we have no right to amend, and ' which therefore we have no need of confidering in a * committee, since the event of all our deliberations must

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be, that we are either to reject or pass it in its present 'state; for I suppose no lord will think this a proper ' time to enter into a controversy with the clinabs ' for the revival of those privileges to which, I believe, we have a right, and such a controversy, the least attempt to amend a money-bill will certainly produce.

To defire, therefore, my lords, that this bill may • be confidered in a committee, is only to defire that ' it may gain one step without opposition, that it may ' proceed through the forms of the house by stealth,

and that the confideration of it may be delayed till ' the exigencies of the government shall be so great, as not to allow time for raising the fupplies by any

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other method.

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By this artifice, gross as it is, the patrons of this ' wonderful bill hope to obstruct a plain and open • detection of its tendency. They hope, my lords, ' that the bill shall operate in the fame manner with ⚫ the liquor which it is intended to bring into more ' general use; and that as those that drink spirits are drunk before they are well aware that they are ' drinking, the effects of this law fhall be perceived, 'before we know that we have made it. Their intent

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is to give us a dram of policy which is to be swallowed before it is tasted, and which, when once it is 'swallowed, will turn our heads.

'But, my lords, I hope we shall be so cautious as to examine the draught which these state-empirics have thought proper to offer us, and I am "confident that a very little examination will con'vince us of the pernicious qualities of their new preparation, and shew that it can have no other effect * than that of poisoning the public.

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'The law before us, my lords, seems to be the ' effect of that practice of which it is intended like' wife to be the cause, and to be dictated by the ' liquor of which it so effectually promotes the use, for furely it never before was conceived by any man intrusted with the administration of public affairs, to ' raise taxes by the deftruction of the people.

'Nothing, my lords, but the destruction of all the most laborious and useful part of the nation, can be ' expected from the license which is now proposed to ' be given, not only to drunkenness, but to drunken' ness of the most detestable and dangerous kind, to the abuse not only of intoxicating but of poisonous liquors.

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' Nothing, my lords, is more abfurd than to affert, ' that the use of spirits will be hindered by the bill now

' before us, or indeed that it will not be in a very

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great degree promoted by it. For what produces

all kind of wickedness but the profpect of impunity

' on one part, or the folicitation of opportunity on

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• the other? Either of these have too frequently been • sufficient to overpower the sense of morality, and

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even of religion, and what is not to be feared from ' them when they shall unite their force, and operate ' together, when temptations shall be increased and terror taken away?

It is allowed by those who have hitherto disputed ⚫ on either fide of this question, that the people appear obstinately enamoured of this new liquor: it • is allowed, on both parts, that this liquor corrupts ' the mind and enervates the body, and destroys vi

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gour and virtue, at the fame time that it makes those ' who drink it too idle and too feeble for work, and ' while it impoverishes them by the present expence,

• disables them from retrieving its ill consequences

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It might be imagined, my lords, that those who ' had thus far agreed, would not easily find any oc'casion of difpute, nor would any man, unacquainted ' with the motives by which fenatorial debates ' are too often influenced, suspect, that after the per

nicious qualities of this liquor, and the general inclination among the people to the immoderate ' use of it had been generally admitted, it could be < afterwards enquired, whether it ought to be made

more common, whether this universal thirst for 'poison ought to be encouraged by the legiflature, ' and whether a new statute ought to be made to ' secure drunkards in the gratification of their appetites.

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• To pretend, my lords, that the design of this bill

• is to prevent or diminish the use of spirits, is to ' trample

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